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May 4, 2015 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Food for Thought: The Banana Comparison

Nukewatch Quarterly Spring 2015

“Sometimes man-made radionuclides are compared to naturally occurring radionuclides, such as potassium-40, which is found in bananas. But this is a false comparison since most naturally occurring long-lived radioactive elements, commonly found in Earth’s crust, are very weakly radioactive.

“Note that potassium-40 has a specific activity of 71 ten-millionths of a curie-per-gram. Compare that to 88 curies per gram for cesium-137 and 140 curies per gram for strontium-90. In other words, cesium-137 is 12 million times more radioactive than potassium-40. This is like comparing an atomic bomb to a stick of dynamite. Strontium-90 releases almost 20 million times more radiation per unit mass than potassium-40. Which one of these would you rather have in your bananas?”

—Steven Starr, “The Contamination of Japan with Radioactive Cesium,” Crisis Without End, Helen Caldicott, Ed., The New Press, 2014, p. 46

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, Uncategorized

May 4, 2015 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Pilgrim Reactor’s Blizzard Shutdown Causes Concern

Nukewatch Quarterly Spring 2015

PLYMOUTH, Massachusetts—The blizzard “Juno” forced Entergy Corp’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to shut down on January 27, and a coalition of local citizens’ groups are asking the NRC to keep it closed. The facility lost off site power during the snow storm, which required it to switch to diesel-powered back-up generators. The severe weather also caused a problem in the switch yard, meaning the power station was unable to send electricity back to the grid.

Pilgrim has experienced similar problems during past storms, which Entergy has not adequately addressed, according to the groups asking for the long-term shutdown: Pilgrim Coalition, Cape Downwinders, Cape Cod Bay Watch and Concerned Neighbors of Plymouth. Citizens called for a proactive shutdown on Jan. 26, when the storm began, citing the fact that an evacuation of the area around the troubled reactor site would be impossible in blizzard conditions. The same day, the NRC itself issued a report stating that Pilgrim had “not provided the assurance level to fully meet all of the inspection objectives and [the NRC] correspondingly determined that Pilgrim will remain in the Degraded Cornerstone of the Action Matrix,” meaning that the reactor operator had failed to correct serious problems identified at the facility one year earlier.

—Pilgrim Coalition, Feb. 3, 2015

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Power, Quarterly Newsletter

May 4, 2015 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Call Them Cancer Salons: Melanomas Again Tied to Indoor Tanning

Nukewatch Quarterly Spring 2015

TEQUEST, Florida—According to the National Cancer Institute, the use of commercial indoor tanning beds causes roughly 400,000 cases of skin cancer in the United States every year, and 6,000 of them come in the form of melanoma, the deadliest form. Still the salons are allowed to promote themselves by promising beauty and, believe it or not, “better health.” Tanning salons are big business with about 14,000 salons nationwide in 2014. There are more tanning sites in sunny Florida than there are McDonald’s restaurants. And the “beauty” treatment is cheap, about $7 for 20 minutes. The good news is that because of the growing concern over tanning’s cancer risks—melanoma has risen by one-third in women under 40 since the early ‘90s—40 states have restricted its use by minors, and nine have adopted outright bans for minors. In addition, the government documented the first ever drop in tanning among teenage girls and a recent decline in the overall number of tanning salons.

—New York Times, Jan. 11, 2015

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, Uncategorized

May 4, 2015 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

UN Calls on Israel to Renounce Nukes

Nukewatch Quarterly Spring 2015

NEW YORK—In December, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling on Israel to renounce its nuclear weapons and place its nuclear facilities under international oversight. Titled, “The risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East,” the resolution passed 161 to five. The US and Canada were among the four countries that joined Israel in opposition to the measure.

Israel is widely understood to possess about 200 nuclear weapons, but refuses to confirm its nuclear status. It is also the only Middle Eastern country that is not part of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The resolution called on Israel to “accede to that treaty without further delay” and “not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons, to renounce possession of nuclear weapons.” It also asked Israel to put its nuclear facilities under the oversight of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

Resolutions of the UN General Assembly are not legally binding, but they do carry moral and political weight as they represent decisions that include all 193 UN member states.

—AP, Dec. 2, 2015

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Weapons, Quarterly Newsletter

May 4, 2015 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Three Minutes and Counting

Nukewatch Quarterly Spring 2015

CHICAGO—The Doomsday Clock now shows only “3 minutes to midnight,” according to a January announcement by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board. The group cited “unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals” as the reason for moving the clock two minutes closer to catastrophe than they had set it in 2014.

“World leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of political leadership endanger every person on earth,” the group said. The Science and Security Board has maintained the Doomsday Clock since 1947. Originally designed to give the public a sense of the imminent threat of the global nuclear weapons arsenal, the clock began to include the threat of global climate change in its measurements in 2007.

In its press release, the Science and Security Board wrote, “We implore the political leaders of the world to take coordinated, quick action to drastically reduce global emissions of heat-trapping gases, especially carbon dioxide, and shrink nuclear weapons arsenals. We also implore the citizens of the world to demand action from their leaders. The threat looms over all of humanity. Humanity needs to respond now, while there is still time.”

—Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Jan. 19, 2015

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Weapons, Quarterly Newsletter

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